Here is this week’s news of grants or gifts to historically Black colleges and universities or for programs of particular interest to African Americans in higher education.
Historically Black Delaware State University received a four-year, $1.1 million grant from the National Institute of Food and Agriculture. The grant will fund research on a virus affecting potatoes. The grant is under the direction of Vincent Fondong, a professor of biological science at the university. Dr. Fondong holds a master’s degree from the University of Dschang in Cameroon and a Ph.D. from WITS University in Johannesburg, South Africa.
The College of Business and Economics at historically Black Fayetteville State University in North Carolina received a $199,280 grant from the Golden LEAF Foundation. The grant will be used to establish an Innovation and Entrepreneurship Hub at the university. The hub will assist small and under-resourced businesses in developing the skills needed to build viable, sustainable businesses.
Simmons University in Boston has been awarded a $196,000 grant from the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration. The goal of the program is to train at least 1,000 social work students to better identify and treat substance use disorders among socioeconomically disadvantaged populations, and other vulnerable and medically underserved populations, to increase the number of social work practitioners who can address the needs of individuals battling these disorders, and to reduce barriers to accessing care.
North Carolina A&T State University, the historically Black educational institution in Greensboro, will share in a $5.7 million grant from the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive Kidney Disease. Partnering institutions are Duke University, Wake Forest University, and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. The grant will support shared technological infrastructure for advancing innovative diabetes research and fostering inter-institutional collaborations in North Carolina. Leading the research at North Carolina A&T State University is Elimelda Moige Ongeri, professor of physiology and associate dean of research and innovation in the College of Health and Human Sciences. Dr. Ongeri holds a Ph.D. in animal physiology from Purdue University in West Lafayette, Indiana.
